NOA Warns Against Improper Refuse Disposal

The National Orientation Agency (NOA) has warned of an impending flood disaster in Port Harcourt and environs if the continuous dumping of refuse into gutters and drains in the city is not discouraged.

The State Director of the Agency, Chief Andy Nweye, who said this in an exclusive interview with The Tide in his office in Port Harcourt, regretted that major drains in the city are being blocked by refuse, stressing that this situation is making it difficult for the evacuation of rain waters and others into the sea.

Chief Nweye particularly lamented the blockage of the channels through which the Nta-wogba creek runs into the sea with refuse.

He argued that recent events in parts of the country have shown that this situation was responsible for the flooding experienced in places like Lagos and Calabar.

“This recent incessant flooding has shown clearly to everybody who cared to listen, that the Polytene bags, the sachet water bags we use everyday and throw into the streets, all end up in the gutters and so our drainages are always filled up”, he said.

The NOA Director said that it was to avoid the unpleasant situation in Lagos and Calabar that the agency has launched a mass awareness campaign to raise the consciousness of Nigerians towards environmental cleanliness.

“The National Orientation Agency decided that there would be need for us to carry out a very serious awareness campaign to check the trend”.

According to him, the awareness is not only interms of cleaning the drainages, but ensuring proper refuse disposal in the country.

Chief Nweye said that the campaign which was launched by NOA in Abuja will be officially launched in the state this weekend.

According to him, the NOA will be collaborating with the Ministry of Environment, Ministry of Health and other agencies to carry out the campaign in the state.